Cabaret Festival Review: Ruthie Henshall – Live and Intimate

When Ruthie Henshall takes the stage, you sit up and take notice. This multi award nominated artist has been playing the music theatre game since 1986 and that means she’s been strutting her stuff for over thirty years

Overall

5

Presented
by Adelaide Festival Centre. An Enda Markey Production Reviewed 21 June 2019

When
Ruthie Henshall takes the stage, you sit up and take notice. This multi award nominated
artist has been playing the music theatre game since 1986 and that means she’s
been strutting her stuff for over thirty years and you know what? She’s still
got it in spades and she doesn’t look a day over thirty. That’s what loving
your job does for you! And Ruthie Henshall loves her job.

Dressed
in black pants with a mermaid silk trim, black bolero jacket and a mirror ball
top, she took the audience in The Famous Spiegeltent by storm and didn’t let
them off the hook until she quietly seduced them into submission with her
encore number, In My Life by the Beatles, after a spontaneous standing
ovation from her crowd of adoring fans. As the gentleman next to me said as we
were leaving the venue that was still buzzing from the show “That was a real
class act.”

Henshall
is a real star of Music Theatre and she has played some great roles during her long
and prestigious career. Her West End debut in Cats was a prelude to a
career that saw her progress through the ranks until she appeared as Fantine in Les Miserables which led to starring roles in Crazy for You, She
Loves Me, Oliver, Billy Elliot and Chicago to name a
few. She has graced the stage in the West End and on Broadway, and she has
worked with some of the finest names in showbiz. Now that takes guts and talent
– and she’s still going strong. I could go on for a long time with the list of
West End and Broadway shows or her numerous concerts and TV appearances, but it
would be a very long review.

Henshall
is a joy to watch, her attitude to her work impeccable, great emotional range
coupled with some joyful, some deeply emotionally driven and endearing
character work. She’s a natural storyteller which makes the bits between the songs
as disarming and captivating as the rest of this thoughtfully crafted cabaret
show. She sings a range of songs from Kander and Ebb to Sondheim, Victoria Wood
to the Beatles and in between takes us on a journey through her life and shows which
is original, funny and sometimes intensely moving.

Mention
must be made of Ruthie Henshall’s band. In true Henshall style she introduced
Paul Schofield on the piano as her ‘band’. This man is truly a band; a
sensitive, accompanist and a polished and brilliant pianist. Never let that one
go.

Thankyou
Ruthie Henshall, I was reminded how much I love music theatre in the hands of a
consummate professional. Keep giving them the old razzle dazzle.